One birddog breed that I have been around some and really like are brittanies. We hunt quail around here, but some of the guys I know use take their brittanies up a little further north to hunt pheasants. Then my other friend has a brittany who, though used mostly to hunt quail, will retrieve a dummy from a pond. He is thinking of using him on ducks and I have heard they'll do it. This dog will swim out for a dummy so he just might swim out for a real bird! This same dog also retrieves doves. I know of 5 friends who have 8 brittanies between all of them and they all seem to be good natured family dogs. I have personally hunted over three different britannies, two of which were not a year old this fall and are hunting now. I am thinking of getting me one some day, too, if I ever decide to slow down with the tree dogs that I like so much (I doubt I'll be able to slow down with treedogs...I'll probably just end up getting a brittany anyway and hunting all the more!!